50,000 British students took to London's streets today to protest the Conservative/Lib-Dem coalition's sharp university tuition hikes, and all had a jolly good time. Some even started smashing, vandalizing, and occupying the Tories' headquarters. It was pretty fierce!

The students simply do not care for the tuition hikes, it would seem. Here's the scene at Millbank Tower, the site of Conservative headquarters:

Hundreds of protesters stormed the building after smashing through the windows chanting "die Tory scum".

Rocks, wooden banners, eggs, rotten fruit and shards of glass were thrown at police officers trying to beat back the crowd with metal batons and riot shields.

Inside the building, windows were kicked in, desks and chairs were overturned and the walls were daubed with anarchist graffiti.

Protesters set off fire extinguishers, overturned filing cabinets and threw office paperwork and business cards from the smashed windows.

Dozens swarmed onto the roof where they hurled fire extinguishers, burning banners, bottles and cans into the crowd.

Several people were knocked unconscious and some were seen with their faces streaming blood after being hit by missiles thrown by protesters

Placards and banners were being burnt, to cheers from the crowd, while protesters inside the building used chairs as they smashed and kicked their way through more of the glass frontage, effectively opening up the whole atrium to the crowd.

A confetti of torn newspaper rained down on the hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Millbank atrium after students gained access to the upper floors of the building.

The Guardian, which has been liveblogging all of the fun, has this account from a student who gained access to the building's rooftop:

Advertisement

"There were only about 20/30 people going up the stairs, but on the way up the whole staircase was flooded – they had pulled down a fire hose and flooded all the floors. All the windows were getting smashed, everything was getting smashed up all around."

"They were mainly young students, just a couple of older guys who looked like old school anarchists," she said.

Oh those old anarchists, always trying to get in on the action. This is your future, America, if either party ever makes drastic, swift cuts to the federal budget!